ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes together clinicians who specialize in various aspects of forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy in order to consider the difficult and problematic issue of risk assessment. It deals with a general survey of psychodynamic approaches to these issues within mental health settings, including hospital outpatient departments, psychiatric wards, and medium-and high-security hospitals—all places in which violence is a stock-in-trade. The book introduces the concept of risk assessment in a psychiatric setting, focusing on the fundamental conflicts and anxieties of practitioners who have to assess risk as part of their daily experience. It also deals with psychoanalytic aspects of risk containment in the high-security hospital. The book considers the concept of projective identification as a form of communication. It also describes psychotherapy with a patient suffering from a destructive narcissistic personality disorder and dependence on stimulant-type drugs.
